There has been great interest in utilizing either naturally occurring enzymes or engineered enzymes to prepare commercially useful chemical compounds. 2-Pyrone (also termed 2PY) is an attractive target for large-scale commercial production because it serves as a starting material for the synthesis of at least three distinct commodity chemicals. Through chemical catalysis, 2-Pyrone can be converted to sorbic acid, a preservative used widely in dairy-based foods. Moreover, further chemical modification yields the enone, 3-pentene-2-one, which is useful for chemical synthesis, and the diene 1,3-pentadiene, which is useful as a plasticizer. Additionally, 2-pyrone itself may be used as a food additive, as a phytochemical or as part of a phytochemical mix.
2-Pyrone synthase (also termed 2-PS) catalyzes the synthesis of 2-Pyrone using acetyl-CoA as one of the starting materials. 2-Pyrone synthase or other 2-Polyketide synthase variants having altered capabilities could expand the enzymatic toolbox available for rational enzyme-based chemical synthesis. More specifically, the discovery of 2-polyketide synthase variants is required to provide novel non-native enzymes having new synthetic capabilities and/or enhanced enzymatic activity.